EAN: 9780691177298

ELEMENTAL - STEPHEN PORDER LEINEN

Over the past four billion years of Earth's history  three organisms-cyanobacteria  plants  and
humans--have altered the planet in profound ways by harnessing the availability of five key
elements. Hydrogen  oxygen  carbon  nitrogen  and phosphorus are the most common elements in
all forms of life on Earth  and all five circulate between the biotic and abiotic world in
biogeochemical cycles. When organisms tap into stores of these elements and change these cycles
they change the atmosphere  climate  and  by extension  the trajectory of life on earth. In the
first part of the book  Porder explains how cyanobacteria and plants harnessed critical
elements and how their success in doing so was followed by environmental collapse in the form
of ice ages. Porder then turns to human-caused climate change. He explores the dramatic ways
humans have altered the cycles of these five essential elements and explains the profound
effect our actions have on the planet. Porder concludes by exploring how we can reduce our
impact on the Earth-both individually and societally-by reorienting ourselves toward recycling
critical elements instead of extracting them from more and more obscure sources. Ultimately 
understanding the role of element cycling is essential to understanding how humans came to be
so successful and to putting us on a path to a sustainable future--

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